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The most damaging aspect of this week's accusation is not that Mark Latham allegedly stole Bill Clinton's oratory, but that he merely tinkered with it for his own political ends. This effete approach suggests that Mr Latham is merely a talented amateur, for talent, as Picasso once observed, borrows where genius steals. Indeed, Picasso probably stole this celebrated maxim from Stravinsky, though claims that Stravinsky filched it in turn from Rimsky-Korsakov, who stole it from his mother at gunpoint, are as yet unverified.

Far better for Mr Latham to follow the example of those gifted Australian politicians who steal with aplomb. Of all the preloved catchphrases savoured by these banditti, none is more prized than that of former British Chancellor of the Exchequer Denis Healey, who famously likened his opponent's budget reply speech to "being savaged by a dead sheep". We can only hope he owns the copyright for this witticism, for my own cursory research reveals that it has been used often, without attribution, in at least five Australian parliaments both state and federal. Mr Healey's coinage has also predictably found favour in New Zealand, and one can reasonably expect that it infests Westminster-style assemblies worldwide.

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Except, perhaps, in Quebec. Being attaque ferocement par un mouton mort loses something in translation. Worse still, those sad attempts to insert some local colour. "It's like being savaged by a dead springbok!" (the Hon. Memb. for Nggagga Province). "I am being savaged by a dead mongoose, yes indeed!" (the Hon. Memb. for Bangalore). "Like being gummed by a dead wombat!" (the Hon. Memb. for Sleepy Hollow, in a transparent attempt to spare the sensitivities of drought-racked graziers in his electorate). This embroidery merely serves to rob the original of its pith and wit, and to reduce the dignity of our legislators.

For the astute politician is well aware that there is nothing the electorate begrudges him more than leisure. He can't be seen to waste valuable governing time composing snappy comebacks. He is far better served to nick one instead, preferably one with a good track record. Anyway, like most political quotations, it has probably been nicked before.